Ada has lost everything in a fire; sudden, brutal and fast. She barely makes it out of her home alive,

her husband calling to her through the smoke while she searches through the heat and flames for

their 9-month-old daughter in her crib. Her hands come out empty again and again until she is

dragged outside still clutching the bedsheets. At the volcanic epicenter of this grief is the beginning,

of the play, of Ada, who must reimagine a new day, a new life, out of an impossible circumstance.

Ada is the first daughter of her family, first of a name, a woman whose life has charted a specific

course: her upbringing, her education, her career, her husband and child, all following the natural

order of things. It was not supposed to end this way.

The fire calls in neighbours and friends and family, and an army of women who come to her aid,

with food, and words, and stories of their own. Amongst these women are the 8 women who help

Ada dig her home out of the rubble, and in their digging uncover the truth of Ada’s life beyond what

appears to be perfect on the surface; her choices (made for her and not of her, life always seeming to

have happened to her), her marriage (teetering on the edge, marred by betrayal), her child (the

unspoken truths about pregnancy, motherhood and the post-partum experiences of women). All of

these realities leading to the unspoken circumstances of the fire and how, for Ada, this grief is the

truth finally coming home to roost.

Ada begins to rewrite her story, through her interactions with the 8 women, she reaches into the

past for her youth, reaches into a future, spanning generations of women who know intimately the

language of loss, but also of strength, redemption and hope. These women serve as living spirit

guides for Ada as she navigates her new reality. Through their interactions we dive deeper into

themes of faith, sisterhood, marriage, grief, motherhood, courage and ambition, healing and hope.

Each age, version, class of woman speaking into and out of the next, painting a picture of our

diversity but also of what unifies us in the end, hope.

We allow the voices of these women to be anchored in the modern-day narratives of womanhood

and feminism each one speaking the language of her generation, as all of the women ultimately

grapple with what it truly means to be alive and woman in Nigeria today. Through their stories and

song, Ada receives a re-education about herself, the world she lives in. Each monologue speaks a

shameless truth that inches Ada forward toward healing and wholeness, an understanding that inside

a woman is a country unto itself, the untouchable power of its own complete universe.